Consumer Price Index

• Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the general measure of the change in the average retail prices of a market basket or collection of goods and services commonly purchased by the average Filipino household.
• In general, the CPI increased reflecting the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all the six provinces and the Highly Urbanized City (HUC) of Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
• The CPI of the CAR in December 2022 was 119.6 index points. This was higher by 8.6 index points from the 111.0 CPI index points of December 2021 with 2018 as the base year.

• Among the CAR provinces and HUC, Mt. Province posted the highest CPI for December 2022 with 126.1 index points, followed by Kalinga with 123.0 index points and Benguet with 120.4 index points.
• Meanwhile, Baguio City posted the lowest CPI with 116.7 index points.
   

CPI by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI
  in the region with 145.4 index points. The province of Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 172.1 index points, followed by Mt. Province with 163.3 index points, and Abra with 160.7 index points.      
• Financial Services ranked second among the commodity groups in the region for December 2022 with 139.2 index points. Among the provinces, Abra had the highest CPI on this commodity with 160.4 index points, whereas Ifugao and Mt. Province had the lowest with 100.0 index points.
• Transport registered the third highest CPI commodity group in the region with 131.4 index points. Benguet recorded the highest index for this commodity with 142.2 index points, followed by Apayao and Ifugao with 140.9 and 133.6 index points, respectively.  
• Information and Communication incurred the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region during the month of December 2022 with 102.0 index points. The provinces of Apayao incurred the highest index on this commodity with 103.3 index points, whereas Mountain Province had the lowest with 99.8 index points.
• Among the CAR provinces and HUC, Mountain Province incurred the highest CPI for All Items with 126.1 index points while Baguio City recorded the lowest CPI with 116.7 index points in December 2022.

• By index point change, majority of the commodity groups in December 2022 incurred increases in index point, compared to the previous year.  Transport recorded the highest increase with 19.8 index points. This was followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages with 13.1 and 11.3 index points change, respectively.
• Financial Services posted no changes on index points in December 2022.

• In December 2022, Transport recorded the highest increase of CPI with 17.7 percent in comparison to the same month of the previous year. This was followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages with 10.2 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively.
• Financial Services incurred no increase of CPI for December 2022.

CPI Market Basket

• Since it is virtually impossible to have periodic measures on the changes in the prices of all the thousands of varieties of goods and services purchased for consumption and services availed by households, a sample of these items, known as the “CPI market basket,” was selected to represent the composite price behavior of all goods and services purchased by consumers.
• Cordillera region contributed 1.63 percent of goods and services in the national market basket.

• Among the goods and services in the market basket of the Cordillera region, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages had the biggest share with 35.8 percent. This was followed by Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 25.7 percent, and Transport with 9.5 percent.
• Financial Services had the smallest share in the market basket of CAR with 0.1 percent only.
   

Inflation Rate

• The inflation of the prices of goods and services in the region increased by 7.7 percent in December 2022, from 7.6 percent in November 2022. This was higher by 3.3 percentage points, compared to the inflation rate of the region in December 2021 at 4.4 percent.

• The acceleration in the region’s inflation rate in December 2022 was brought about by the higher annual increase in the index for Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 10.2 percent, from 9.0 percent in the previous month. This was followed by Transport and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels at 17.7 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively. Higher annual hikes were also observed in the indices of the following commodity groups during the month:

1. Restaurant and Accommodation Services, 6.7 percent;
2. Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services, 4.5 percent;
3. Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, 9.9 percent;
4. Clothing and Footwear, 3.7 percent;
5. Health, 4.1 percent;
6. Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance, 3.5 percent;
7. Recreation, Sport and Culture, 4.3 percent; and
8. Education Services, 0.6 percent;

• Meanwhile, Financial Services retained its annual rate.

• Among the provinces and HUC in the Cordillera region, Apayao posted the highest inflation rate in December 2022 with 10.5 percent. This was followed by Mt. Province and Kalinga with 10.3 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively. Ifugao incurred the lowest inflation rate with 5.4 percent.
• All the provinces and HUC in the Cordillera region recorded a higher inflation rate for December 2022 compared to the same month of the previous year with 2018 as the base year.

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

• The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in all the provinces generally weakened in December 2022, compared to the same month of the previous year.
• The value of one (1) peso in the region was 84 centavos in December 2022. It dropped by six (6) centavos from 90 centavos in December 2021. Among the provinces, Baguio City had the highest peso value with 86 centavos, followed by Abra and Ifugao with 84 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value with 79 centavos.
• Conversely, a basket of goods that can be bought with 100 pesos in December 2018 is worth 119.6 pesos in December 2022.
• Also, one hundred pesos in 2018 was worth 84 pesos in December 2022.

VILLAFE P. ALIBUYOG
Regional Director

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Technical Notes

Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a general measure of the change in the average retail prices of a market basket or collection of goods and services commonly purchased by the average Filipino household.

Inflation Rate (IR) is the rate of change in the average price level between two periods (year-on year/month-on-month as measured by the CPI).

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) measures how much the peso in the reference year is worth in another year.

Base Year (BY) is the reference point of the index number series, at which the index number is set to 100. It is the reference point of the index number series.

The CPI is now rebased to 2018 base year from the 2012 base year. The year 2018 was chosen as the next base year because it was the latest year when the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) results were made available.

The rebasing of the CPI is done periodically by the PSA due to the following: 1) to ensure that the CPI market basket continues to capture goods and services commonly purchased by households over time; 2) to update expenditure patterns of households; 3) to synchronize its base year with 2018 base year of the Gross Domestic Product and other indices produced by PSA such as the Producer Price Index (PPI) for Agriculture; PPI for Manufacturing; and Value of Production Index (VaPI), Volume of Production Index (VoPI), and Value of Net Sales Index (VaNSI) for Manufacturing.

Market Basket (MB) is a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services produced or bought by the households.